Man on Wire

It all makes for an absorbing, mischievously amusing yarn, whose climax unfolds with unexpected emotional force.

In this exhilarating, palm-moistening documentary by British filmmaker James Marsh (Wisconsin Death Trip), the twin towers are back to celebrate one of their finest moments.

The erasure of the towers adds poignance and irony to a documented event that is inherently thrilling and beautiful.

Though we know how it ends, it unfolds with suspense. And though it lacks any discussion of the towers' destruction, it succeeds as a tribute to their birth.

It's a story worth telling, yes -- but after 90 minutes, it's hard not to wonder if the storyteller can talk about anything else.

By any rational gauge, Petit's WTC obsession was flat-out crazy, but Marsh takes a limpid, nonjudgmental view of it all.

Exhilarating docu about high-wire feat has some edgy scenes.

...captures the mysterious beauty of Petit's obsession, without ever being so gauche as to 'explain' it.

...cheekily irreverent

The pains of the public eye are acknowledged just as much as the joy this artistic endeavour brought people.

Despite a known outcome, James Marsh's documentary offers sublime thrills - grafting the tense suspense of a heist film onto an existential dissection of artistic accomplishment and true friendship.